About Face Theatre, the Chicago troupe that co-developed Broadway's I Am My Own Wife, hits the jackpot again with its current offering, the much more light-hearted Pulp by Patricia Kane. This thoroughly enjoyable world premiere is an affectionate parody of the lurid lesbian fiction of the 1950s. Like a good noir film of that era, Pulp clocks in at a pithy, fast-moving 90 minutes during which Kane makes every word count and director Jessica Thebus makes every move an amusing one in this tale fueled by "heat, hormones and whiskey."

It's 1956 and tough Terry Logan musters out of the WACs after one fling too many with a general's daughter. After a final night with her sergeant, Terry heads for [...]